Living History: The Somme Battlefields | HH Community
World War One
•
24m
The Battle of the Somme, which began on 1 July 1916, is remembered as one of the bloodiest events of the First World War. On the first day of the offensive, one man was killed every 4.4 seconds, making it the bloodiest single day in the history of the British Army. There were over a million casualties sustained by both Allied and German forces by the time the battle had concluded.
Historian Mat McLachlan travels along the Circuit of Remembrance with tour guide John Anderson, visiting the commune of Beaumont-Hamel, the Newfoundland Memorial and the extraordinary World War One collection at Le Tommy Café in Pozières to learn more about the battle and all those who fought in it.
Up Next in World War One
-
The Christmas Truce
On Christmas Eve 1914 many sectors of the Western Front in France and Belgium fell silent. Troops from all sides put down their weapons and sang carols, exchanged gifts and buried their dead in No Man's Land. The following day the truce continued in many, but not all areas, and troops gathered in...
-
Sam Mendes on 1917
1917 is a new film directed by Golden Globe winning film maker Sir Sam Mendes. Set in early 1917, at the height of the First World War on the Western Front, Mendes uses the backdrop of the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line as the stage for telling a story inspired by the memories of Alfred Me...
-
Forgotten Faces of the Great War: The...
China started out as a neutral country during the First World War. But by early 1917, one thousand Chinese men were on their way to the Western Front. Tens of thousands more would follow, to provide logistical support to the Allies. They constituted one of the largest labour corps of the war. The...